Category Archives: Meanings of life / death / social & moral stuff

Minds as predictive engines

Posted on January 4, 2019 by

(Reading Andy Clark, Surfing Uncertainty (Oxford UP 2015)) I’m no longer sure I know what an “ordinary” theory of mind would look like, but I’m guessing that it would resemble an organized camp of explorers. The explorers, or our senses, venture … Continue reading →

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On the Other Delphic Maxims

Posted on September 7, 2018 by

Now up at Aeon. The conclusion: The fact that the great majority of maxims on the list can still serve us today is itself worth further reflection. There is no denying that our lives have changed a lot in the … Continue reading →

Posted in Historical episodes, Meanings of life / death / social & moral stuff, Stacks of Books | 1 Comment

Wisdom from Whitman, Camus, and Mae West

Posted on July 6, 2018 by

I am a body. I have been “designed”, through mishap and random success in an ever- changing environment, for millions of years. The result is astonishing: a pumping heart, breathing lungs, and a bewildering array of chemical processes that allow … Continue reading →

Posted in Meanings of life / death / social & moral stuff | 1 Comment

The Challenge of Being Vertical

Posted on June 5, 2018 by

Sloterdijk, Peter. You Must Change Your Life, translated by Wieland Hoban (Polity, 2013) We construct for ourselves ideals that taunt us, pull us upwards, and change our lives. This is fixed; but the the nature of those ideals, as well … Continue reading →

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The Hope of Concepts (or, some sorely needed arch support)

Posted on May 7, 2018 by

(Loosely reflecting while re-reading Peter Sloterdijk’s You Must Change Your Life…) As in Spheres, PS’s aim is to create (or at least open up a space for) a new life-support system for humans, a post-religious quasi-religion grounded in practice and … Continue reading →

Posted in Books, Meanings of life / death / social & moral stuff, Metaphysical musings | 2 Comments

Philosophy as an art of concepts

Posted on April 23, 2018 by

Around the beginning of the 20th century, the intellectual landscape changed radically and forever. The old view, let’s say, presumed the intelligibility of a God’s eye perspective: a vision of Things as They Are, or Things as They Really Are … Continue reading →

Posted in Historical episodes, Items of the academy / learning, Meanings of life / death / social & moral stuff | 1 Comment

Philosophy as enchantment?

Posted on October 19, 2017 by

[What follows is a version of an address recently given at the Mountain-Plains Philosophy Conference, where a good time was had by all.] In a lecture at the University of Munich in 1919 – the year before he died – … Continue reading →

Posted in Books, Historical episodes, Items of the academy / learning, Meanings of life / death / social & moral stuff | 5 Comments